Audio Version Of The Blog – 07.17.12

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A Veil Over The Face Of Infinity

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 42: We have now explained the five worlds that include the entire spiritual reality that extends from Ein Sof to this world. However, they are included in one the other, and in each of the worlds there are the five worlds.

Why are the worlds necessary? Isn’t the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) enough? After all, it descends from its whole spiritual level that is totally in order to bestow to a gradually lower level of bestowal called the worlds of Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira and Assiya.

On the whole, it is about the same unity, the same mutual bestowal, but on a lower level. There are the same features and they connect in the same way, but the intensity of their connection decreases and is conveyed more weakly through the general network. Thus, the “worlds” are the concealments of Ein Sof that cover the intensity of its unity and connection.

In any case, we are speaking only about one reality. Later, when the souls are created, when a person wants to attain the attribute of bestowal, he will see and feel this system according to his current state.

And besides the five Sefirot KHBTM in each world, there are the four spiritual categories: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking.

There are nothing more than Lights and vessels. As the vessels mutually connect with the Lights, they feel them differently. In the language of the branches, we attribute these manners to the levels of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels, and give them different names. Now, they are all depicted to us as this world.

On the other hand, there are no identical “images” in the spiritual world where we feel the levels of our mutual connection. All the Kabbalistic concepts belong to the spiritual force that operates inside us, and so we have no illusions in the form of “three-dimensional pictures” that take up space, have weight, and so forth.

In spirituality, everything is clarified inside us in the true form, which means in the form of forces. However, in order to be able to speak about these forces and about the states of the desire, we give them names and definitions taken from the wisdom of Kabbalah and from compatible reflections in our world.

One way or the other, it is the same Ein Sof that is distorted to the extent that the created being looking at it is corrupt, as it is written, “a person who disqualifies, disqualifies according to his own faults.” The created being’s perception is depicted as 125 degrees, although, in fact, there is nothing but Ein Sof. When we speak about the worlds, about what goes on in them, we always refer to the person who is on that level. When he rises to another level, he will see a different picture.

So, we see that everything is relative. There is a system we are in and which we attain. The worlds do not actually exist, and their order depends on the person who attains it.

You constantly determine your state in relation to the world of Ein Sof. By perceiving twenty percent of it, for example, you determine your perceptions the world of Assiya. If you perceive forty percent of Ein Sof, you are in the world of Yetzira.

The worlds are divided also into degrees, but on the whole, you determine your current state with regard to the world of Ein Sof. Only it exists, and you aim your perception toward it and find yourself in one world or another on a certain level of concealment of Ein Sof.

Now, your desires are totally corrupt and opposite to it, so it is depicted to you in the form of this world. Actually, now, too, you are in Ein Sof, but unconsciously, and in this unconsciousness, the corporeal pictures are depicted to you. This is why our world is called “the imaginary world.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar

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Connection Is The Beginning Of Everything

Dr. Michael LaitmanNothing will be solved if we don’t start from the point of our connection. It is the foundation and everything should start from it. It is to this that we add every word, every attribute, everything that we want. It is to this point of connection.

Therefore, we mustn’t activate a single thought before we determine this point. You first must stabilize it within you and start thinking about how to strengthen it, how to expand your control over other attributes, how to turn it into a circle.

This is fulfilled by the environment. If you create this point and work in order to incorporate the friends in it, it expands correctly, and you don’t forget what is really important.

Question: So, why are the states prolonged? Why do we feel heaviness?

Answer: You feel heaviness in your corporeal, egoistic vessels. When you feel better and things are easier, you are happy. On the other hand, if you advanced mutually connected to others, you would feel happy when you feel heaviness.

The question as to why the states are prolonged is an egoistic question. A person who advances doesn’t have such thoughts. He asks himself one thing only: “How can I be sure that in my current state I bestow without any self benefit? I only need a sign that I really am bringing You pleasure, a sign that is totally detached from me. I don’t need any sensations or that things will be easier, I just need to know that I am doing the right thing.” This is bestowal.

Question: What is the sign that I have succeeded?

Answer: It is according to the Light of Hassadim that you receive. It won’t give you anything except the belonging to bestowal. Then, I will understand and feel that the Creator knows nothing about my efforts and my achievements, and neither does anyone else, and I feel even happier about that. It is a sign that I am truly detached from my ego.

Question: How can we fix such an attitude in our hearts?

Answer: You can do that only by the general opinion of the society. We need to know what is “in the air” about bestowal, which is the lack of different, opposing demands. I only need the right direction and the powers to go through it, and the road itself is like a one way road.

Then, by correcting my vessels this way, I ascend to a new level and begin to enjoy in order to bestow. This cannot be described in words. I receive in order to bestow and enjoy, but my pleasure isn’t felt in the ordinary desires, although they are all there.

Question: What is “the general opinion of the group?”

Answer: It is the general tendency that puts bestowal above everything. Everyone must simply know that this is how they should speak about it although they raise the importance of the Creator in the eyes of one another artificially.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar

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The “Chosen People” Have A Responsibility Before The World. Who Is Willing?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: From my experience during trips abroad, I can say that in relation to the concept of the “chosen people,” others envy the Jews and ask: “Why them, but not us?”

Answer: What advantages do people see in being the “chosen people”? More money? Are the Jews awarded some special treatment other than anti-Semitism and general hatred? Would anyone like to take their place? If you look at it from the standpoint of common sense, then it is better not to be Jewish.

Only if I accept my duty, if I feel that I can perform a special task in the world, then it makes sense to be a Jew. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Hence, there is assimilation, an inability to accept one’s Jewishness, and the like. If various Jewish organizations around the world started speaking with a warm heart about the role of the people of Israel by leading them towards unity through love, then there would be no assimilation in its current scale. Then a person would feel that a special part that needs to be realized is inherent in him, that he is unique in history, in all reality, in the universe.

Question: Isn’t there a pretext of pride?

Answer: There is a place for responsibility and care for others, but not for pride. Being deeply acquainted with the methodology, personally, I feel no arrogance; I am just anxious about realizing our mission.

It is said: “The Creator has chosen you,” but He chose you for the purpose of correction. You have to work; you should take care of the whole world. And after you complete your task, and all people unite in love becoming a single entity, there will be no difference between us. People will integrally unite in a common “sphere” that has no right or left, no top or bottom, no great or small. Everyone will unite together, similar to the upper force.
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From a “Talk at the Convention” 6/5/12

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“You’re Not As Great As You Think You Are”

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Mother Nature Network): ““A growing body of psychology research shows that incompetence deprives people of the ability to recognize their own incompetence. To put it bluntly, dumb people are too dumb to know it. Similarly, unfunny people don’t have a good enough sense of humor to tell.

“With more than a decade’s worth of research, David Dunning, a psychologist at Cornell University, has demonstrated that humans find it ‘intrinsically difficult to get a sense of what we don’t know.’ Whether an individual lacks competence in logical reasoning, emotional intelligence, humor or even chess abilities, the person still tends to rate his or her skills in that area as being above average.

“Dunning and his colleague, Justin Kruger, formerly of Cornell and now at New York University, ‘have done a number of studies where we will give people a test of some area of knowledge like logical reasoning, knowledge about STDs and how to avoid them, emotional intelligence, etcetera. Then we determine their scores, and basically just ask them how well they think they’ve done,’ Dunning said. ‘We ask, “what percentile will your performance fall in?”’

“The results are uniform across all the knowledge domains: People who actually did well on the test tend to feel more confident about their performance than people who didn’t do well, but only slightly. Almost everyone thinks they did better than average. ‘For people at the bottom who are really doing badly — those in the bottom 10th or 15th percentile — they think their work falls in the 60th or 55th percentile, so, above average,’ Dunning told Life’s Little Mysteries. The same pattern emerges in tests of people’s ability to rate the funniness of jokes, the correctness of grammar, or even their own performance in a game of chess. ‘People at the bottom still think they’re outperforming other people.’ …

“If only we knew ourselves better. Dunning believes people’s inability to assess their own knowledge is the cause of many of society’s ills, including climate change denialism. ‘Many people don’t have training in science, and so they may very well misunderstand the science. But because they don’t have the knowledge to evaluate it, they don’t realize how off their evaluations might be,’ he said.

“Along the same lines, people who aren’t talented in a given area tend not to be able to recognize the talents or good ideas of others, from co-workers to politicians. This may impede the democratic process, which relies on citizens having the capacity to identify and support the best candidate or policy.

“The ultimate takeaway of the research is the reminder that you really may not be as great as you think you are.”

My Comment: Kabbalah explains in details how much our egoism blinds us and does not allow us to see the truth. It takes a lot of effort in the group, being against the friends to begin in one’s perception of them to “see” oneself. And by developing the objective perception above egoism, one can “see” the Creator.
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Ice Cream For Everyone

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe must stop dealing directly with our desire, trying to fill it through the different systems we have created. It simply doesn’t work. It worked partially for a while, meaning intentionally in order to let us reach the shattering, and the full recognition of our evil. But now we’ve reached a state in which we can come to the conclusion that we can’t advance this way anymore. We have to rise above the old approach, above the attempts to fill ourselves and to manage our lives egoistically. We will never succeed this way and so we must rise to the level of bestowal.

If we don’t rise from the attribute of receiving to the attribute of bestowal, we won’t be able to reach fulfillment. We must understand that we cannot continue with the old way. The new approach is: only the connection of everyone, not of some on the account of others. We can fulfill ourselves only if we unite.

It’s as if nature is confronting us with a condition, a new egoistic law that says: “You can have a wonderful life, everyone will receive fulfillment and will be happy, but only if you are all equal.” It’s like a mother who says to her children, “Do you want some ice cream? You will get it only if you are connected and don’t fight. If not, no one will get anything.”

This is how nature calls us to advance to equality, so that within the equality we will be able to discover an even greater opportunity. The main point is not the ice cream that you will get when you reach equality; you are being drawn by the ice cream so that you will reach equality and feel that it’s the highest value. When you eat the ice cream, you already enjoy it from a state of equality and connection. You suddenly discover that the ice cream that is eaten together when you are connected is 1000 times tastier than the ice cream you ate by yourself.

So what does nature want? It wants you to feel that you have received a new vessel, a new desire that enables you to discover a taste that is a 1000 times greater, NRNHY instead of Nefesh. You become free of the limitations of life and death and begin to exist in an infinite space. You reach a new perspective, a feeling of limitless freedom from the limitations that the ego imposed on you.

You feel how wonderful it is to connect with others. The ice cream was just an excuse, a trigger that brought about the changes, the discovery of the new integral desire. This is the process the whole world has to go through now.

We are going through this process consciously, as we understand where we’re headed. Therefore, we have to help the rest of the world, by explaining to them that they shouldn’t try to reach connection in the old ways anymore. They have all failed. Let’s try a new approach, a very simple approach: If we unite, we will succeed.

For others it will be a simple egoistic goal: to unite in order to succeed. But because we organize it and we are together, through us they will receive another filling. The desires of the world are “round” and our desires are “straight.” So when they connect to us they will also receive this straight form, just like a musical instrument that fills its bag. After all, the “circle” already contains the straight form that has the Masach (screen) and works with the Light. Then everyone will start feeling that it’s this integral form that gives the special filling, NRNHY, and thanks to our connection, the world will advance.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/02/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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There Are No Accounts In Love

Dr. Michael LaitmanInside of each nation, there is concealed an internal force that unites it. However, the sons of Israel, as Baal HaSulam explains, are not like the rest of the nations who possess this natural interconnection. If there is no love among them, they disperse easily. Only the hatred of other nations holds them together and protects them from complete assimilation.

Baal HaSulam uses the example of a bag of nuts. They are so unwilling to unite that they even rattle and hit against each other, but the “bag,” meaning anti-Semitism, doesn’t let them fall apart. However, this is not love and not unity. So, how long will they last?

That is why now the time has come for them to unite with each other and not due to the “bag” that shrouds them, but based on love and interconnection. Then, the external pressure will not be needed and it will cease. Suddenly, the Arab cousins will change their relationship and actually will become like brothers to them. This is because the point is not in someone else, but this is how the higher governance influences the Jewish people.

If the nation will merge, the “bag” will no longer be needed, and in this way, all of the negative forces in the world will be eliminated, only by the means of unity. Realizing this methodology, people will feel something that is instilled in their soul and forgotten long ago.

The seed already has been planted, and that is why Baal HaSulam writes that the Jewish nation needs to awaken the love within it again while, of course, it is necessary to be open to everyone. Who knows where the ten tribes who fell away during the time of the First Temple have gone? Who knows where their descendants are now and how many there are.

Anyway, if the entire world has to arrive at the same unity, then, of course, the Jewish nation is ready to accept all of those who want it. There are no accounts in love. Those who wish it so, join in.
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From a “Talk on 5/6/12”

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When A Woman Grumbles

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What do we do if the women whose husbands already are working with integral upbringing raise claims to them such as, “You go there; you’re saving the world while we are vegetating here”?

Answer: It means that the woman has not received enough of integral upbringing. She does not feel that, through her self-sacrifice, since the husband is not home because he is studying and everything rests upon her shoulders, she makes a huge contribution, above all, for herself and her children. She does not understand the higher, spiritual impact that comes to them.

Here, it is important to explain to the person and give him the opportunity to somewhat feel that eternity, the perfection into which we are entering on the next level, is instilled in nature. Everyone talks about this today.

We need to let the women feel that here is a higher reward, to make them participants of what their husbands are doing, but in different circles, with children, between women, and so on. This is all possible.

We are situated at such a transition where we are developing the methodology from various directions. In front of us, the entire world lies as an untrodden expanse. This is our century, our generation; this what we still have to do.

Psychologists, ecologists, economists, and political scientists must play their role, all of the people who represent the middle class and above who understand, realize, and feel the reasons behind what is going on; in contrast, the ordinary people who do not feel what is going on, the causes and roots, are therefore unable to do anything. Here, the intellectuals must play their role.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/28/12

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How Do You Explain To A Woman That Her Husband Is Saving The World?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is it possible to say that, when a man studies the integral method, he is saving the world?

Answer: Of course it is the saving of the world since otherwise we are all headed for disaster. I believe everyone understands that.

Question: How can a man express the importance of this work to his family?

Answer: I don’t think that a man today can influence a woman, his wife, and explain to her that what he deals with is important. She won’t accept it through him, but she will perceive it through other men. If his friends come to her, not those with whom he used to have a beer, but his new friends, if they talk to her or if she goes to a lecture or to a course for women or something like that, others will convince her, but I doubt that the husband himself can do it.

After all, she sees through her eyes, on his part, he has to undergo very serious changes in his behavior, in his openness and in his attitude toward her. If he spoke to her in a completely different way, looking into her eyes and getting rid of all the external trappings which were between them, if he put his arrogance aside and all the distortions and the habits, then he might be able to do it, but, in order to do that, the husband has to be free of the domination of his “promiscuous” society. This is, of course, a big problem since a person is enslaved to his environment.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/28/12

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 07.17.12

Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash, Dargot HaSulam, “Article 68”

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The Book of ZoharSelected Excerpts “Beresheet Bet (Genesis 2),” Lesson 141

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 3, Chapter 1, Item 2, Lesson 2

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Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 45, Lesson 17

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